JC BASEBALL: Rodriguez promoted to Chaps head coach

Midland College names Hector Rodriguez 8/15/17 as the new head coach for the MC baseball team. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Midland College names Hector Rodriguez 8/15/17 as the new head coach for the MC baseball team. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

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Midland College names Hector Rodriguez 8/15/17 as the new head coach for the MC baseball team. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Midland College names Hector Rodriguez 8/15/17 as the new head coach for the MC baseball team. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: Tim Fischer/Midland Reporter-Telegram

JC BASEBALL: Rodriguez promoted to Chaps head coach

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The official introduction of Hector Rodriguez as Midland College's new head baseball coach on Wednesday morning was a validation of why he has stayed at MC as long as he did.

After 12 years as an assistant, 11 of which under David Coleman, the 37-year-old Rodriguez was introduced as only the third head coach in the program's 17-year history.

Coleman announced on Tuesday night that he had stepped down to take a local sales job and left with an impressive 412-241-1 record.

To those who have followed the program closely over the years, they know that there is no better person to take over the program that Rodriguez, who helped Coleman build the Chaparrals into a nationally-respected program.

"When we found out that Coach Coleman would be leaving, my mind immediately went to Rodriguez as a replacement for him," said MC Director of Athletics Forrest Allen. "I couldn't think of anybody else who would be a better fit than Hector.

"It's a really good situation. Hector's come in and worked really hard for Midland College. He has presented himself as a coach and he has distinguished himself as a recruiter and as a pitching coach."

Allen added that Rodriguez was the lone candidate for the job.

"I'm really excited for the opportunity," Rodriguez said. "To me, it puts validation of why I've been here for 12 years. With some other opportunities during that time period and choosing to stay, now I know why I stayed here -- to be able to take over a great junior college program and keep it going in the right direction. It was a pretty easy decision to stay and just keep moving forward."

Rodriguez said actually got an offer a few weeks ago to be an assistant coach at U.T.-San Antonio, his alma mater. However, that offer came at the same time when Coleman informed him he would be leaving.

"The opportunity to be a head coach and to be a head coach at a place that you've been at a while and going in the right direction, to me was a no-brainer," Rodriguez said. "It was kind of an easy decision when we sat down as a family and discussed what we wanted to do."

Rodriguez was 25 years old when he came to Midland College as a part-time assistant under Steve Ramharter, who started the program from scratch. When Ramharter resigned to take a job in the private sector during the 2006 season, Rodriguez along with then assistant coach Rene Barrientes served as interim coaches. Rodriguez was a finalist for the head coaching job at the time along with Coleman, who had actually recruited Rodriguez to UTSA when Coleman was an assistant there.

That bond between Coleman and Rodriguez continued for the next 11 years as they built the program into one that made back-to back appearances in the JUCO World Series in 2013 and 2014.

Rodriguez said he learned a lot from Coleman.

"I learned not just about baseball but being a young man and becoming a father," Rodriguez said. "My time with coach, with Forrest and the leadership we have here taught me a lot about baseball and it taught me a lot about off the field stuff too. I have my wife here, I have two beautiful kids here and I've become a man in my 12 years here. You can credit that to a lot of people."

Sophomore outfielder and Midland High grad Ethan Barker was at the introductory press conference and said it should be a smooth transition as both Coleman and Rodriguez have similar ways of doing things.

Barker added that he was grocery shopping with his grandmother when Coleman called to tell him the news.

"We talked for a good 20 minutes, almost a half hour in that grocery store. It was bittersweet," he said. "I had grown up with the Colemans. I played Little League with (Coleman's sons) Hunter and Ty and I've known them since then. Great family. Great people. That was huge reason why I wanted to come here with Coach Coleman. I knew what kind of coach he was, I knew what kind of standards he held his players too.

"I knew how his teams played the game and I knew that was right way to play the game. There are a lot of things I didn't know about the game that I still need to know, but there's no better coach to learn it from than Coach Coleman."

Rodriguez said he expects to be the same kind of coach he always has been, just with added responsibilities.

"You like to think you're going to bring some energy, a different passion, a different angle maybe," Rodriguez said. "I still think I'm a young coach. I still think I can relate to the players. I think the players like me as an assistant coach, I know that will probably change a little bit. I'm going to be the same guy every day. That's how I was as an assistant coach. I'm a pretty even keel person. I think I'm still going to have a pretty good player-coach relationship. I just have to make the decisions now, the hard and the easy ones. I don't expect to change personally. I still enjoy coaching the game. I'm just excited to do it from a head coaching perspective."

Rodriguez said he hopes to hire volunteer assistant coach Bo Altebelli as his assistant but he still needs to go through the hiring process at MC before it becomes official.